Physical Characteristics

Eyes and Facial Features: Dark green sharp eyes with a small but expressive mouth.

Ears: Average sized human ears.

Hair Color and Style: She has long fairly dark blue hair that flows with a bit of a wave down to the middle of her back. When on duty, she'll often tie it back to keep it out of the way. Her bangs flow down to around her chin, with a bit of layering near the middle of her brow to shorten it up.

Distinguishing Features:

Psychological Characteristics

Personality: Ren is a studious character, with her goal to become a historian and teach at a war college in the future. Due to her nature of wanting to understand many things, she's often curious and inquisitive to the things around her. She'll often sit quiet in a conversation or briefing just to absorb and think about what's being said, especially if it's with someone more experienced than her.

She's a bit of a coward though, being more of a timid intellectual than a valiant fighter. She wouldn't refuse to personally be on a strike team, but her decision to be a Starship Operator was partially to minimize the occurrences. She's afraid that she may freeze up on a mission or worse, put her team at risk for being unable to act. She fully understands that a great leader is only as good as their troops, so she doesn't want to be the cause of failure. However this is something that must be overcome if she's to become a respected instructor in the future.

Dislikes: Not so well-brewed coffee, hot-headed people, irrational leaders, causing a team to lose, being on the front lines

Goals: To gain enough wisdom and experience in the army to teach history and military strategy at a war college.

History

Pre-RP

Ren grew up as a Geshrin listening to stories from his father about the Star Army's military exploits and the ruthless efficiency of its leaders. From this, Ren grew up with an intense interest in history and just what made the army what it was. He decided his goal would be to teach history and military strategy at a war college, with his plan to learn from textbooks and accounts of great leaders in action.

After graduating a 4-year civilian college with a degree in history, he felt he still lacked the mindset required to actually understand how great leaders think and how they can make such substantial decisions on the battlefield. He reluctantly decided that the best course of action would be to join the military and observe everything first-hand.

Originally, he was reluctant to join the military since he was too cowardly and afraid to die. He eventually accepted his decision to join up after rationalizing that mind backups could restore him if he expired and that the odds of those backups being permanently lost were low enough. He decided to apply as a Starship Operator partially to avoid some infantry combat but also so that he could be as close to the leaders as possible to observe and learn.

After graduation, he spend a few months in leisure and light studying of ship operations before he went to sign up for the Star Army. He was recommended to upgrade his body to a Minkan since it was the latest model and that his current Yamataian body was being phased out. He consented and glanced through the customization options. He felt kind of a uninspired reaction among seeing the male body, seeing it as dull and ridged. He couldn't really say that men's fashion ever appealed to him, feeling that it lacked creativity. Before he accepted an appearance nearly similar to his own, he noticed by chance the option to request a body of the opposite gender. He considered the option with an intense embarrassment yet unsatisfied curiosity flowing through his mind. He hesitantly selected the option and looked at the customization options, his heart starting to race and his foot tapping quickly without his notice. He configured the options to his liking after much thought then hovered his finger over the submit button. After a small mental battle and a little courage he wasn't known for, he submitted the selection to the recruiter. He waited nervously, sure that if he was questioned on why he changed gender, he would insist it was an error on his part and that he didn't understand the form. Fortunately for him, no such questions came up and he began the upgrade process.

She spend her time in basic getting used to not only the Minkan body but also to the female changes. However, they didn't have much time for leisure during training, so she was often dead tired when she returned to her bunk. In what felt like no time at all, basic was over and it was already time to embark on her first mission.

YSS Sakura II

Episode 2 "The Alternative Maneuver"

Hikawa Ren joins the YSS Sakura II as a Starship Operator as her first position. Her first mission, the ship's second, involved simply investigating a repeating signal in a devoid area of space under Yamatai control. This should have been a simple first mission for the pilot, but they got trapped in a singularity and sucked in an unknown time and space.

There they ran into Nepleslain Indomitable who claimed to of shot them down in the past. In Ren's first foray into combat, managed to outfly the battleship until power was fully restored. Around then, a group of Yamatai ships looking worse for the wear joined them and helped them stop the Indomitable's FTL jammer. With that, they escaped to the Yamataian hidden base.

At the base, the ship is repaired. However, as they try and leave, the remaining Yamataians of this dimension attempt to prevent the ship from leaving by kidnapping the captain. Ren fought off the approaching warships with the half-sabotaged weapons and sensors until the other teams forced their opponent to surrender.

Free at last, they returned to the singularity and managed to ride it back home. And thus they were never allowed to talk about any of it, sad for Ren and her desire to lecture about it someday.

Interlude 2: "The Return"

After the last mission, the YSS Sakura II docked for some much needed rest. As they were preparing for leave, Ren met Hanako briefly as she dropped by the bridge to say hi and invite them to the Hanami festival.

Miyako helped Ren shop for new clothing, since Ren didn't have any casual clothes from after transitioning. Along with the shopping came heavy teasing and Miyako giving Ren a lesson on basic girl “knowledge.”

Episode 3: "Leviathan"

3 months later, the YSS Sakura II received a new mission to explore a section in deep space. Before they reach the destination however, they react to a strange signal and find the remains of an ancient battle. Another team investigates the ship, but a larger ship from the Black Claw Empire comes alive and attacks them.

Ren was conflicted between her duty and preserving the piece of ancient history that floated in front of them. She went with a compromising solution and disabled it with EMP. The ship still was drifting towards them, so she slowed it down with the ship's graviton beam projectors and angled it to just miss them.

After that, they were able to bring the recovered bodies back to base, where they were taken by researchers and most likely classified to hell and back.

Interlude: "Hanami Matsuri YE 40"

Relaxing after the previous mission, Ren visited the Hanami Matsuri again, this time in a light pink flowery kimono. After finding the ever-important yakitori stand, she met up with Yaichiro. This proved a good opportunity to meet him more as they had never directly spoken and he would soon be her leader.

Ren also met Hitohoshi, who seemed quiet and shy like she was. Ren pushed herself to be social and energetic to compensate for the overall shy group. This lead to her acting a bit over-the-top silly, but she felt it worked pretty well.

“'How about a shooting contest over there? Though I'll have to warn you…' she said, putting her hands on her hips and adopting a haughty expression towards Hitohoshi. 'I sit on the bridge and fly a ship all day and haven't fired a gun as much as I probably should have as a soldier. Think you can take me?'”

Episode 4: "Shakedown

Current: The YSS Sakura II was deployed to the Scrapyard System to defend the Cosmos Star Fortress from an attack by the Kuvexian Military. They attempted to use the ship's stealth mode to hide behind where the enemy would warp in, then attack them from behind once the enemy's FTL couldn't function inside the system's gravity influence.

Skills

Star Army Common Skills

Starship Operations

In addition to basic training, Ren has taking basic training in Starship Operations, enough to get her started on a ship and learning from hands-on experience.

Entertainment

Hikawa carries a violin with him that she learned to play growing up. Originally picked up by her in order to look more intelligent and refined, the instrument eventually grew on her into an actual hobby. The violin itself is of reasonable quality, a level or two above a beginner's instrument but nothing fancy. A few scratches and dents remain from the time when she didn't appreciate the instrument as much as she does now.